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Sabrina Spins
R om antic Tale
Harrison Ford and Julia
Ormond star in the romantic
comedy Sabrina.
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1996
Issu es o f Race, War
Bring Fall
Until being undermined by the
issues of his day, C hicago Mayor
Richard J. Daley was one o f the
most powerful politicians in
American history.
See Entertainment, page B2.
(Lije
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XX 250
Simpson Debate May Go On For Years
REW I
t was the most-watched trial
audience also heard tales of wife beating,
in history and in its wake
police bungling, evidence tampering and
America’s justice system —
downright lying.
juries, the media and above all the There were the gory details of the mur­
police - are on trial.
ders as a coroner explained in a no-punches-
Emergency
Readiness Questioned
Portland’s emergency radio commu­
nications network, a new $8.5 million sys­
tem for police and firefighters, malfunc­
tioned for more than five hours during the
Dec. 12 windstorm. The failure raises con­
cern over whether the city is prepared to
respond to a major earthquake or other
disaster.
I
> j
Smith-Wyden Race
At Dead Heat '
Republican Gordon Smith and Dem­
ocrat Ron Wyden unleashed another round
of attack ads after the latest polls showed
their U.S. Senate race was a dead heat.
Election ballots are scheduled to be mailed
in January.
Dole Guessed
Wrong About Nixon
Newly released Watergate papers show
Bob Dole was loyal to President N ixon in h is
last months as president and thought the
, Vatergate scandal would blow over. The
aocuments show Dole, now the frontrunner
Republican candidate for president, had
sought a private meeting with the president
“to offer his personal encouragement.”
The legal debate sparked by the O.J.
Simpson case could well rage into the 21st
century . In addition, the trial in which the
former football hero was found not guilty of
murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson
and her friend Ronald Goldman exposed a
gaping racial divide in America.
Polls taken after the verdicts were an­
nounced showed the vast majority of blacks
believed Simpson wasjustifiably exonerated
of the murders while the vast majority of
whites felt the predominantly black jury had
set a murderer free.
Simpson is black and both victims were
white.
The trial lasted eight months and was
televised live gavel-to-gavel in the United
States and seen in other countries around the
world, providing a soap opera that no Holly­
wood scriptwriter could have dreamed up.
There was high drama as lawyers from
both sides postured before the television
camera and Judge Lance Ito threatened to
pull the plug more than once. A worldwide
pulled manner how the victims were stabbed
and slashed to death and how the murderer
committed the coup de grace by slitting N icole
Simpson's throat so viciously that her head
was almost severed from her shoulders.
In his closing arguments, defense attor­
ney Johnnie Cochran urgedjurors to "send a
message" to what he termed, a corrupt Los
Angeles Police Department, returning not
guilty verdicts. Many whites believe the jury
chose to follow his advice with verdicts that
spoke more o f their distrust of the police than
their belief in Simpson’s innocence.
One of those is Fred Goldman, Ronald
Goldman s lather, who launched a campaign
to have the jury system in California changed
so that juries can bring in non-unanimous
verdicts.
“Something needs to be done about a
system that is broken, b^Jly broken,” he said
in launching the campaign in November.
"When I learned o f my son’s death, I never
imagined I would be thrust into a system that
I mistakenly thought was there for the pur-
O.J. Simpson
and his attorney
Johnny Cochran
at last summer's
trial in Los Angeles.
pose o f justice and honesty. Instead, I found
that we were in a system that condoned
dishonesty, unfairness, manipulation of the
truth and, least of all, justice.”
Criminal trial lawyers around the coun­
try have argued that the Simpson case was an
aberration that in no way reflects the justice
President Nixon’s daughters, Tricia
I Cox and Julie Eisenhower, said Oliver
Stone’s new movie “Nixon,” contains
cooked-up scenes “that are ealeu lated solely
and maliciously to defame and degrade the
late president and Pat Nixon’s memories in
j the mind of the American public.”
Far Left: Mike Brant (from left)
and Kevin Moedica are two of the
volunteers that help make the
Police Activities League one of
the biggest sponsors of youth
activities for kids in the Portland
metropolitan area.
(Photos by Cliff Jensen)
Lloyd Center
Expansion Eyed
The owner of the Lloyd Center is
planning an eight-block expansion, north
of the shopping mall to Broadway that
would cost $ 100 million and include retail,
food and entertainment businesses.
Guilty Or Not Guilty?
Portland Schools
Face Layoffs
Bierwirth unveiled a budget that would cut
more than 400 employees, mostly teachers.
Tyson To Face Bruno
Former heavyweight champion Mike
Tyson’s next opponent will be World Box­
ing Council Champion Frank Bruno on
[ March 16 in Las Vegas. The bout comes
after Tyson’s recent third-round knockout
| over Buster Mathis Jr.
Clinton Blamed
In Drug Fight
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Joseph
Biden, D-Del. accused President Clinton
ot tailing to wage a vigorous fight against
drug abuse by young people. “To borrow a
phrase, President Clinton has between
AWOL, absent without leadership on the
drug issue,” Hatch said.
EDITORIAL
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Continued to page B5
Near Left: Karey Schoenfeld
(from left), Sgt. George
Weatheroy Jr. and his wife, Corie
Weatheroy were on hand for the
annual Police Activity League
Holiday Gala.
Nixon Film
Termed Malicious
With less state money next year, Port-
I land Public School Superintendent Jack
system and have resisted calls to change it.
“The Simpson trial was in no way typical
of how the criminal justice system operates
on a daily basis. Most cases result in guilty
pleas or convictions. If the system favors any
K, WaS J“StiCe Served Whe" A Jury Convicted A Black Man To Death In Portland?
My m otiva­
produced and no proof exists that any death
tion to fight for
occurred,” she insists.
Brown is justice.
Heinrichs contends that the prosecution
I'm Caucasian, but
relied too heavily on the testimony of a
anybody with a
justice center inmate.
good conscience
Brown’s criminal past and his prior con­
shouldexaminethis
viction in 1984 for distribution of a con­
case,” Heinrichs
trolled substance may also have hurt his
told the Portland
ability to gain public support.
Observer.
During the trial, the court heard that
Heinrichs said
Brown, 55-years-old at the time, had abduct­
Cornelius Brown
there was a miscar­
ed his estranged girlfriend before killing her.
riage o f justice be­
Police have never recovered her body.
cause the assistance provided by the defense
Court records obtained by the Portland
attorney was ineffective.
Observer show that Mu Itnomah County Dep­
She also believes that Anderson is alive
uty District Attorney Gregory Homer told
and well. Heinrichs even holds sworn affida­
jurors that the abduction had occurred at the
vits by people who said they have heard or
end of an abusive five-year relationship in
saw the alleged victim since the alleged death.
which Anderson had grown tired of physical
A claim defense counsel Robert McKee had
and psychological abuse from Brown
presented to the jury.
Homer told jurors that Anderson was
"There was no physical evidence linking
killed just before she was about to testify
Mr. Brown to any crime, no weapon was ever
against Brown concerninga restraining order
vonne Heinrichs and Carolyn
Leonard did not think justice
was served when an all-white
jury decided that Cornelius Brown, a
black man, should die for killing Hope
Anderson, his white girlfriend in 1987.
Y
Both Heinrichs and Leonard are cam­
paigning relentlessly, hoping to fan public
attention to the case.
logether, they are proclaiming that
Brown was a victim of a trial fraught in
racism and should be set free from the clutch­
es of the law.
Brown is currently serving a life term at
the Oregon State Penitentiary after the Su­
preme Court commuted his sentence to life as
a result o f a faulty jury instruction.
The jurors had found Brown guilty of
aggravated murder of a witness, felony mur­
der, kidnapping and burglary in connection
to the Nov. 3 0 ,1987 disappearance of Ander­
son from her north Portland home.
HEALTH
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HOUSING
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ENTERTAINMENT
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and misdemeanor assault cases pending
against him.
He said Anderson had given police drug
records to be used in a hearing on revocation
of probation related to Brown’s previous
drug conviction.
William Bates, a convicted robber and
burglar, held the key for the prosecutor’s case
during the trial He testified that Brown had
made admissions about Anderson’s death
while both were in custody at the Portland
Justice Center Jail.
In exchange for his testim ony. Bates
received a five-year term o f probation
for a burglary and was returned to W ash­
ington where he was to face other charg­
es.
Heinrichs and Leonard are demanding
that polygraph tests be given to Brown, a
demand legal authorities say is not relevant
because of inadmissibility of a polygraph in
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Continued to page BS
CLASSIFIEDS
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